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Breakfast Beer Week – Lemon Pancakes with Coffee Porter

It wouldn’t be any kind of breakfast week without there being pancakes involved. The inspiration for this little number came from a little B&B in upstate New York where some scrumptious lemon pancakes were served up one morning in a charming old homestead. I scoured the internet to try my best at recreating them and found a recipe, which I imagine to be very similar, at Jen’s Favourite Cookies, a baking blog, so kudos Jen! (Mine don’t look anywhere near as good!)

The beer I’ve chosen to go with these tasty breakfast morsels is a coffee porter from London outfit Meantime Brewing Company. It presents a sturdy coffee aroma that translates decently to the palate with some tartness to the bitter overtones. A relatively light-bodied porter, it’s deep, dark brown in colour with a tan head and smooth mouthfeel.

The Recipe

Lemon Pancakes with Butter and Maple Syrup | Makes about 10 pancakes

What you need:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon castor sugar

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 1/4 cups milk

zest of 1 lemon

juice of half a lemon

butter and maple syrup to serve

What to do:

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

3. Butter a warm frying pan and drop batter onto pan, making each pancake about 1/4 cup batter. Cook until edges are brown and bubbles appear over the majority of the surface. Flip and cook on the other side. Remove from frying pan and keep warm. Repeat with remainder of batter.

4. Serve with generous lashings of butter and maple syrup. And beer!

The Match-Up

The dominant coffee flavours on the palate balance the sweet starchiness of the pancakes while the tart undertones of the beer’s bitterness tie in well with the lemon flavours despite them losing any sign of tart or sourness through cooking. The bitterness of the porter contrasts against the sweet syrup and yet its coffee smack goes hand in hand with the maple flavours. It’s almost like having your regular morning coffee, albeit alcoholic and served chilled.

Author’s note: In the interests of full disclosure (and not appearing like raging alcoholics), Breakfast Beer Week at drunkspec was not undertaken in one week but spread over a number of weekends and holidays.